Nacho Figueras Presents Read Free Page B

Antonia didn’t have the clothes. In fact, for the first time in her life, she had plenty of clothes. She had wanted for nothing since that winter eight years ago when Alejandro had found her in that nearly empty studio in Berlin.
    *  *  *
    The heat had been turned off, so she’d taken to staying in bed as much as possible, fully dressed and huddled under five layers of blankets. When someone had knocked on the door, she considered not answering, afraid it was the landlord demanding the last two months’ rent. But then she had thought, what if it was Jacob? What if he wanted her back? And just the faint hope of that possibility had propelled her out of bed and to the door.
    But it hadn’t been Jacob. It had been Alejandro Del Campo, her eldest brother, whom she had never before met. She’d recognized him immediately, though. Tall, dark, and broad shouldered, with Carlos’s strikingly handsome and imperious face. Except that her brother had ocean-blue eyes, not black, and a much kinder, though sadder, smile.
    He was there, he said, to let her know that she would inherit quite a large sum of money from their father and would need to return to America to claim it. He would take her back home with him, if she was willing.
    She stared up at her brother as the breath left her body. She hadn’t known their father had died.
    It had been like a twisted fairy tale. Suddenly, after years of neglect, Carlos had finally claimed her, just as she had always dreamed he would. But instead of her strong, handsome father swooping in to take her away, there were just words on paper, signatures, and lawyers, and red tape, and no father at all. Only this stranger of an older brother here to deliver the news, who looked as grim and reluctant as Noni felt.
    Alejandro had noticed her shivering then and frowned. She’d watched him realize that her flat was no warmer than the ice-cold hall he was standing in.
    “Let’s get a cup of coffee,” he’d said. Then, peering closer at her frail form and pale cheeks, his face softened. “Or perhaps lunch?”
    She had hastily agreed, and after two bowls of soup, three cups of hot tea, and a slice of Linzer torte, she had also agreed to go back to Florida with him, where, he assured her, it was very warm, and she would be welcome to stay as long as she liked.
    “I’m sorry I did not know of you sooner, Antonia,” he said, taking her hand. “It’s a crime and a shame what our father has done to you. And to me and Sebastian. Somos familia . This should not have been the first time we met.”
    And she had blinked, trying to keep back the tears. “Call me Noni,” she’d offered weakly in return, already starting to love this big brother she had always imagined she hated.
    Since then, she’d had everything. A monthly stipend from her inheritance, her little cottage and blacksmith shop on the beach, the farrier job, the ponies, the clothes, world travel with the Del Campos, the parties, the connections, the glamour.
    Once the initial rumors had cleared and everyone accepted that she was neither a junkie nor a prostitute, she’d been treated like a mysterious long-lost princess by the Wellington horsey crowd. She’d been invited everywhere, cultivated, and accepted like a true Del Campo.
    Except that she was not.
    Her brothers Jandro and Sebastian and, later, their wives Georgia and Kat had offered her nothing but kindness and friendship. They had welcomed her into their home—and what a home it was. The Del Campo farm was even more impressive than she had fantasized it would be. And once she had completed her blacksmithing classes, they had hired her on as their team farrier. She’d now been with them for almost eight years, and yet, she still felt like the little girl she had been—the one whose mother had constantly told her that her rich, handsome, and powerful father wanted nothing to do with her. She still felt she was watching her family from the outside, with her nose pressed up to